How to Be Everything

From "What do you want to be when you grow up?" to "What are you up to these days?"

Emilie Wapnick rose to fame after her TED talk "Why some of us don't have one true calling" that has almost 4M views. Emilie has devoted to help people who are "multipotentialites" or someone with many interests and creative pursuits. This book is an extension of her talk giving anecdotal support to what multipotentialites are, and what they do to be more effective in spite of their multiple interests and lack of consistency.

The book is a good intro for multipotentialites, a feel good, "Welcome to the tribe" (as the title of one the chapters) book. It provides some tools to assess if one is indeed a multipotentialite and its kind. Finally it offers some tools to improve effectiveness. However the books is somehow soft, in a way it is expected since the core idea of multipotentialites is that they don't follow social norms on how to live ones lives. Nonetheless, that lightness seems like a rationalization, an excuse to fail on delivering. Like it or not multipotentialites live in the real world where people expect results on time, on cost and on quality, no excuses.

Hope Wapnick work gets the attention in academic circles to become a research subject and thus future books and papers. Meanwhile you can find more about Wapnick and multipotentialites in her site Puttylike.com

Shoe Dog

Bill Gates recommended Phil Knight's book Shoe Dog in his 2015 annual blog. After reading Knight's story I can't but agree with Gates.

Shoe Dog is a very honest memoir of Knight and Nike (NYSE:NKE), full of business wisdom but also the challenges and setbacks. He didn't sugarcoated his story like many entrepreneurial books. Reading Shoe Dog is an emotional rollercoaster, from stories of adventure, success, failure, doubts, despair, sorrow, pride and joy.

Things I found amazing about Phil Knight:

1. He prepared ahead for the adventure. From the very early pages he tells the story of how he wanted to travel around the world. With near $0 budget yet "I spent weeks, reading, planning, preparing for my trip." similar stories are prefaces to his first trip to Japan, to Taiwan and China. 
2. He cared for his team, having hired very odd people at the beginning mainly trying to help them to his support for the athletes they sponsored.
3. He recognized his business journey very honestly, from making money, to dominate the market to contribute to the human drama. "I redefined winning, expanded it beyond my original definition of not losing, of merely staying alive. That was no longer enough to sustain me, or my company. We wanted, as all great businesses do, to create, to contribute, and we dared to say so aloud."
4. His almost devotion to his coach and cofounder, Bill Bowerman, as well as to other people who contribute to Nike success. Constantly not letting Bowerman behind, naming the buildings after supporters, his appreciation for Tiger Woods, etc. 
5. His connection with his family could be omitted but it helps to appreciate Knight's humanity. The struggle between a growing business and his family, his regret for not having spend enough time with his kids, his apologies to his wife, Penny, for having to waited and waited, 

The book has some pearls of business wisdom too, not as a recipe but as a testimony.

1. Cash management is crucial specially for a fast growing business.
2. Plans have a short life, specially when conditions change.
3. Tell people what you want and let them surprise you with their results
4. When you believe in something being stubborn pays off, but if you have doubts trust your team.
5. An IPO may be necessary but the timing is important.

For those interested in entrepreneurship this book is a must. 

An interesting conversation with HBR Ideacast.

Fight Club

The first rule about Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club. The second rule about Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club. Thus, should I write a book review in the first place? 

Usually book lovers agree that books are better than their movie version. Popularized by the 1999 movie featuring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton  Fight Club is not the exception, despite I saw the movie years before reading the book. A recent interview to Chuck Palahniuk reported in Clash Daily brought up my interest in the story but this time I decided to go for the book. The story of a franchise of clandestine fight clubs were otherwise peaceful people vent their frustrations,  Fight Club illustrates what Kierkegaard wrote about Irony.

"Irony is a disciplinarian feared only by those who do not know it, but cherished by those who do. He who does not understand irony and has no ear for its whispering lacks of what might called the absolute beginning of the personal life. He lacks what at moments is indispensable for the personal life, lacks both the regeneration and rejuvenation, the cleaning baptism of irony that redeems the soul from having its life in finitude though living boldly and energetically in finitude". - Soren Kierkegaard

The irony of a life without major risks but no meaning, a life so boring as to join a number of support groups trying to find novelty. The irony that "the first step to eternal life is you have to die".

Palahniuk tells the story between a regular Joe, the narrator, and his alter-ego, Tyler Durden. A permanent conflict between a typical, boring, uneventful lives and what we would like them to be. We find in their relationship with Marla the struggle between a platonic love and a lusty lover. Or the complex contrast between the beautiful and the ugly as in manufacturing an expensive soap out of human fat.

"Our goal is the big red bags of liposuctioned fat we'll haul back to Paper Street and render and mix with lye and rosemary and sell back to the very people who paid to have it sucked out. At twenty bucks a bar, these are the only folks who can afford it."

A constant battle to be different but as the narrator says:

"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile."

Fight Club evolves into a larger goal, Project Mayhem, a project so secret that the first rule about Project Mayhem was not to ask questions about Project Mayhem. 

"The goal was to teach each man in the project that he had the power to control history. We, each of us, can take control of the world."

The power to control the world was the power to "complete and rightaway destroy civilization to make something better out of this world".

Palahniuk leaves us with a reflection about our own reality.

We are not special.

We are not crap or trash, either.

We just are.

We just are, and what happens just happens.

How do you find meaning in life? Do you need to destroy in order to be? Can we instead learn from our mistakes and grow creating?

Playborhood

Mike Lanza is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with whom I identified, not because his professional career but his devotion to his children and family. Like me, and many parents, Mike was concerned by the few opportunities children have to freely play this days. 

Mike's story came to me after reading an article in the New York Times by Melanie Thernstrom. The story was interesting but had a feeling of critique that I couldn't understand. Mike is not a play expert but a father who is not sitting in his couch whining and waiting for the government to fix his problem, he honestly is trying to provide a safe and fun environment for his kids to play. It was a relief to read play experts like Tim Gill, Peter Gray or  Lenore Skenazy, appreciate what Lanza is doing. 

But Mike didn't stop at doing something for his kids, he wrote Playbordhood. He researched about other initiatives all over the US of people acting and not just complaining. People of different socioeconomic backgrounds, in different setting, with different approaches. His book is not only a collection of stories but a guide for those who want to do something; from selecting the right neighborhood, to creating attractions for kids, to building a community, and more. He lays out a plan on how to create a playborhood. He is not naive in pretending that this is a magic potion that will fix the problem, kids outgrow the attractions, there is fierce competition from electronics, other parents have their own fears and preferences, etc. His message can be summarized as don't give up and keep trying. 

"My approach has been to stay the course as long as the positive response outnumber positive responses outnumber the negative ones. When I do get a specific negative reaction, I try to accommodate whatever complaint the neighbor might have."

Some of the critiques to Mike's solution are that he is an affluent Silicon Valley entrepreneur and thus he can spend lots of money on his playground. Mike challenges this idea not only by recognizing other initiatives with fewer resources but invites people to put their money in their priorities.

"I hope readers of this book will re-evaluate the relative budgets for the inside and outside of their homes. When weather is OK, a great yard is far more important to kids than the inside of the house. Moreover, even in bad weather months, kids don't appreciate expensive decor at all..... Having a great home entertainment system inside the house is attractive for them, but they will benefit far more from a great yard"

One of the key concepts of Playborhood is they are right were children live. Other alternatives like playgrounds and city parks are places where kids can't go on their own at the time they please. Going to those places become a planned activity. People come from different locations making it hard to create a culture of play and a community. Playborhoods have their issues, Mike may have done things differently from suggested by experts but the big picture is that this is an idea to stimulate others to act and improve.

Monica and me visiting Mike's playborhood

A Sharia London

A Romantic novel or a Fundamentalist thriller, or both? A Sharia London is the new novel by Vinay Kolhatkar that brings in an insiders view of radical Islam and the people's struggle to break free from it.

Raw in details, rich with cliff hangers and plot twists this is an "Un-put-down-able" book. 

The narrative takes the reader through London and other parts of the Europe, the Middle East and India, as the love story between Marlon Stone, a middle age history professor, and Jamila Kahn, a young beautiful "Muslim apostate" student, evolves. What started as a confronting student who challenged Dr. Stone's politically-correct stand and uneventful life ends in a thriller of terrorism, assassination, mafia fightback and intense love.

"- ....That is your world, Marlon.
- What is your world?
- A Sharia London, and I don't want to be in it."

Marlon Stone is an idealist who thinks that the good side of Islam just needs to gain critical mass to win over the fundamentalists. Jamila, who was raised a devout muslim knows better. She has seen how extremists kidnap and trade young girls for ISIS, how they rape and assault apostate muslims and kafirs. Jamila contends that extremists can't be defeated with patients and time, but with positive actions. She was involved with Azaadi, a secret organization who saves young girls who want to escape Islam.

As Stone starts falling in love with Jamila he recognizes the truth. He gets in the middle of Azaadi and while helping Jamila escape gets himself in danger. The climax of his discovery is when he returns to his class, no longer willing to watch history from the sidelines:

"The epochal moments of a society’s history arise from a clash of values so intense that no politically correct dialogue can even begin to touch it, let alone resolve it."
"In the long narrative of human history, these are the turning points, the twists and turns of the story as it unfolds. Identify these epochal moments ... remember, they are always caused by an intense value clash .. study these pivotal moments, and you understand humanity itself."

What is fascinating about Sharia London are the contrasting values. An middle-age professor who suffers from anhedonia and an intense young idealist student, a submissive mother willing to give her life for a rebel daughter, the Mafia helping fight terrorism when the government failed, living in danger or dying in peace.

However the core moral of the story is an increasing sense of life as danger becomes real and present. Living a life without meaning is closer to being dead while living the life you choose despite the risk and dangers is intense and meaningful.

"Suddenly, he knew. She lived. She lived every day anew like it was her last, extracting every residue of purpose and cheer from whatever life threw at her. Every day."

For the reader the question is "Am I living a life of meaning? Can we find meaning in life as if nothing is happening in the world around us? Do you actually need to be in danger to enjoy life or just live intensively as if everything can abruptly end?

The Last Lecture

On September 18th, 2007 Randy Pausch delivered a unique lecture. For years Carnegie Mellon had a series of lectures titled "The Last Lecture" where professors spoke as if it were their last lecture about their personal and professional journeys. In the case of Randy it was indeed his last lecture. Diagnosed the previous summer with pancreatic cancer he had just a few months ahead to live. Instead of lamenting and feeling defeated he dedicated his last months to enjoy life and his family. The father of three small children (Dylan 6, Logan 3, and Chloe 18 months) and married to Jai for eight years, his lecture and book are statement for them and we, as audience, have the privilege to learn from it.

Professionally, Randy Pausch was a computer scientist from Brown University, PhD and Professor from Carnegie Mellon, pioneer in virtual reality and Walt Disney Imagineer, above all an educator.

His lecture "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" became an instant hit (as of today more than 18 million views in YouTube). After this lecture Pausch wrote the book with more details about his story. The Last Lecture is an autobiography full of inspiring lessons. 

Preparing the lecture Randy struggle with what made him unique. After playing with ideas and memories he conclude that he achieved all his childhood dreams, therefore the title.

The book is broadly divided in three sections. First he shares his childhood dreams and how they were achieved. The lessons are of passion, perseverance, faith and hard work. The second part is a series of anecdotes that give the reader an idea of who Randy Pausch was; an optimist, hard working nerd, passionate about whatever he was involved in (learning, teaching, working, in his marriage, parenting, etc). The last part relates to his values and beliefs. Randy appreciated the community and helping others to achieve their own dreams, family, generosity in general, hard work, frugality, team work, truthfulness, industriousness, and more. 

Randy passed away just 10 months after his "Last Lecture" but his inspiration will remain for many years later.

From USA Today Obituary

Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008)

My rating 4 stars.

A Brief History of Entrepreneurship

Joe Carlen book is History the way I wish I had in school. Instead of the disconnected list of events "A brief history of entrepreneurship" is a dynamic summary of human history since the first civilizations in Mesopotamia until the next frontier out of our planet, from the eyes of entrepreneurs and those pushing out the boundaries of the then current world.

"The transformation from rural agrarian to urban commerce took place during the Uruk period of Sumerian history, an era that began about 3,500 years ago."

The narrative of the book allows the reader to identify the birth of institutions we take for granted today. From the division of labor, the non-zero sum trade, financial instruments to fund explorations, the early corporation and merchant societies, accounting control, fiat money, etc. 

The book is mainly descriptive and not normative about entrepreneurship but it is easy to identify historic patterns. Carlen's sources make the book credible and a good reference to understand the systemic differences of motives and results. In periods like the early Sumerians and Phoenicians dominated more by City-States that had high commercial interaction progress excelled. In contrast periods with strong centralized governments like Romans and Medieval times the entrepreneurial spirit was limited to cronyism and corruption. No wonder why in the first kind entrepreneurs and merchants were in high esteem, while in the later were the lowest of the classes.

Chapter 4, An Enterprising Faith, is quite interesting under the light of the current geopolitical events. It describes the emergence and advancement of the Arab world in the VII century. Unified under Muhammad the Arabs expansion covered the Middle East, North Africa/Spain and parts of Central Asia. Despite it was a military conquest it was driven by mercantile concerns. The Muslim world was a remarkable pollinator. It expanded and advanced Greek scientific knowledge, made mathematical contributions like algebra, expansion of use of writing paper from China, silk, cotton, wool textiles from different regions, or African Coffee.

The Brief history has a space for Sumerians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Chinese, Mongols, Western Europeans and their Imperial expansion to America, Africa, India and Asia, and the Colonist. Before the Industrial Revolution most of the benefits of the entrepreneurial spirit were limited to the regions that were thriving and not globally. The last part starts with the Industrial Revolution. Carlen misses the role of ideas in the change of pace of progress, something that Deirdre McCloskey brilliantly explains. Nonetheless he points out:

"However, prior to the Industrial Revolution, innovation in the form of disciplined scientific inquiry rarely intersected directly with the world of entrepreneurship. The original Industrial Revolution, that is, the one that occurred in Britain and peaked during the seventy-year period of 1760-1830, is when those worlds coalesced in unprecedented ways."

Carlen covers the modern era with short biographies of business tycoons from Abraham Darby (1678-1717) to today pioneers of the last frontier like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. Including people like James Watt, Thomas Edison, the wrongly called Robber Barrons (check Andrew Bernstein's "The Capitalist Manifesto"), entrepreneurs in different parts of the world (China, Latin America, Africa, or Russia), the information revolution with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and more.

Overall the "A Brief History of Entrepreneurship" is a good reference of how entrepreneurship and human progress go hand in hand. A window of the conditions that allow these ever present minds shine and make all our lives better.

My rating 4 stars.